Welcome to Volume 9 of the Fitness Destinations Journal!
We are pleased to announce a product line also geared towards personal trainers, and it is called Personal Trainer Athletic Brand. The products including clothing, caps, and various types of equipment bags, all branded with the distinctive Personal Trainer logo!
This awesome line of equipment was the brain-child of Joey Atlas, another super fitness professional here in the Jacksonville, FL area. You can learn more about Personal Trainer Athletic Brand and Joey himself by checking out his website.
This week's informative articles are below, and include some great information on training with the proper intensity, as well as how to get a great workout in the comfort of your own home or yard! Have a great weekend!
Fitness Article - Weight Management
and Heart Rate Monitors
by Richard Dafter -
President, Howtobefit.com
Improving Your Quality of Life, One Heartbeat at a Time
The following article addresses how to create an appropriate plan
of action to capitalize on the relationship between heart rate and
calorie burning for weight management. The central focus will be to
optimize your time spent on physical activities through the use of a heart rate monitor.
As Tom Venuto, author of Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle
says, "The law of calorie balance is an unbreakable law of physics:
Energy in versus energy out dictates whether you will gain, lose or
maintain your weight." All physical activity will burn calories. By
definition, a calorie (more accurately, a kilocalorie) is the amount of
heat required to raise 1 kg of water 1 degree Celsius. Phil Kaplan, one
of the world's most in demand fitness professionals says, "Every time
you blink, swallow, type, or roll over in bed, additional calories have
to be burned to provide the fuel for movement. When the body is at
rest, bodily functions continue. You breathe. Your heart beats. Your
brain sends out chemical signals and impulses." These activities, to
name just a few, account for the calories that make up your basal
metabolic rate. Planned activities such as walking, aerobics, swimming,
bicycling, weight training, etc. are what you need to engage in, in
order to burn the calories that you need to manage your weight. Polar heart rate monitors are the perfect
tool to monitor heart rate while doing these sports and activities.
You cannot just participate in an activity, however, and expect to get
the desired results. You need to maximize calorie burning for the
duration of that activity. That is where heart rate plays a crucial
role. The most effective heart rate zone for fat burning is, generally
speaking, between 65% - 75% of your maximum heart rate. Although you
will burn calories above that range and participating in activities for
brief periods of time (assuming you are physically capable) in the
higher heart rate zones has significant benefit, your duration will
generally be much shorter. The longer you are able to participate in an
activity, the more calories you will burn.
Traditional heart rate measurement at the wrist or neck obviously has
significant drawbacks. Polar Electro, Inc., the manufacturer of Polar
heart rate monitors, realized the potential for being able to
continuously monitor heart rate, first for competitive sports and then
for the general public to use in fitness and weight management
activities. The OwnZone feature on many Polar heart rate monitors is a
perfect example of how technology has replaced the far less effective
traditional methods of determining heart rate. Since your physical well
being can be compromised by stress, lack of sleep, being poorly
hydrated and so forth, the OwnZone feature found on Polar heart rate
monitors determines on any given day an individual's correct exercise
zone. It guides you through an appropriate warm-up routine and
automatically determines a safe and effective exercise heart rate zone
by taking into account your current physical condition and thereby
assuring you that you will be maximizing your body's ability to burn
fat.
Having established the relationship between heart rate and calorie
burning, it is now clear that a heart rate monitor is like having a
personal trainer or coach on your wrist at all times. Although you may
not feel like working out, your heart may tell you that you are
emotionally tired and not actually in need of a rest or recovery day.
On the other hand, a higher heart rate can indicate that you are in the
early stages of fighting off a cold or the flu and that prudence and
moderation would be dictated. An intuitive trainer or coach would also
recognize factors that would determine how long, how hard and whether
you should work out on any given day.
Finally, there is the obvious relationship between heart rate and
effort. Someone who is experienced with working out may know their
perceived effort. But perceived effort, as seen in the examples used
above, can also have its drawbacks. Heart rate is the ultimate guide to
your current physical condition and activity level. As your heart gets
stronger by engaging in physical activity, you must still stay within
your fat burning zone to optimize the value of your workout. Although
you may think that distance over time (for example, if you walk one
mile in 15:00) is an adequate guide, you will find that your heart will
adapt and in order to stay within your zone, you must walk that same
distance more quickly or go farther in the same amount of time.
In a time conscious society where family and work obligations tax our
ability to find the time for physical activity, you must maximize the
benefit of your effort each and every time that you engage in fitness
activities. This can be accomplished simply and effectively by using a
Polar heart rate monitor.
Howtobefit.com is a leading retailer of heart rate monitors from
Polar. We have unbeatable prices on Polar heart rate monitors and the
widest selection of Polar heart monitors on the Web. HUGE inventory of
Polar heart rate monitor products including every Polar monitor and
accessory manufactured by Polar.
Fitness Article: Workout Without a Gym
By Gary Matthews
You may have no access to a commercial gym, home gym or are on a business trip, but there can be a solution, a strength-training workout without the need of expensive machines.
As with any exercise, whether you are using your own body weight, machines or free weights, if the resistance doesn't increase, your muscles won't be worked to their maximum capacity and the stimulus these fibres need to grow will be missing.
Exercises done correctly will build the lean muscle and increase your metabolism in the same way as performing exercises at a gymnasium, but without the time constraints and associated costs.
These exercises can be easily done in a bedroom, hotel room, a park, school yard, ceiling rafters in a garage or in a doorway and all you have to do is use your imagination. There will always be a way to add more resistance to your workouts.
Please remember: It doesn't matter where you are working out — at home, a hotel, or a park — always warm up properly before beginning your session, and cool down and stretch when you are finished.
Leg Exercises
Squats -
They build muscle in the thighs, shape the buttocks and improve endurance. Position your feet about 13 to 17 inches apart or at shoulder width, keeping the back straight and your head up. If you want you can use something that will give you some support, i.e. a desk, bookcase, sink etc.
Now squat down to where the tops of the thighs are parallel to the floor, hold for a second and then stand up, but don’t bounce at the bottom of the movement, use a nice fluid motion. Always exhale your breath as you stand up.
Lunges –
Stand straight in correct posture; now stand with one leg forward and one leg back. Keeping your abdominal muscles tight and chest up, lower your upper body down, bending your leg (don't step out too far).
You should have about one to two feet between your feet at this stage, the further forward you step, and the more your gluteus and hamstring muscles will have to work.
Do not allow your knee to go forward beyond your toes as you come down and stop where your feel comfortable (try not to let your back come forward) then push directly back up. Do all your reps on one leg then switch legs and do all your reps on the other leg.
Back Exercises
Chin-ups -
Chin-ups are a great upper body workout, particularly targeting your biceps, deltoid and lat muscles. Use a doorway chin-up bar, ceiling rafters in a garage or grab the moulding of your door frame, position your hands with an under hand grip and hang down stretching the lats, slowly raise your body until your chin reaches the bar level.
Pause a moment before slowly lowering yourself back to the starting position. Don’t swing or use momentum to get your body to the top, just use the target muscles. Doorway chinning bars remove from the doorway when you are not using them and can be put up and taken down in seconds.
Bent Over Row -
Take up a position with your right hand and right knee braced on a sturdy bed or some other flat surface that will provide a good support. Now pick up a dumbbell or something heavy that you can hold onto with your left hand.
Visualize your arm as a hook and slowly bring the dumbbell or object up to the side of your chest, keeping your back straight, then lower the weight back down to arms length, no lower, on extremes, safe form only please. Concentrate on your back muscles. Reverse the whole procedure and do the exercise now with your right arm.
Chest Exercises
Push-Up -
The push up is used for building chest, shoulders and arms. Lie face down on the floor with your hands about shoulder width apart and keeping your palms turned slightly inward. Now push-up until your arms are straight, lower and repeat for repetitions.
To make it more difficult elevate your feet. Try placing the toes of your feet on a stable, elevated surface such as a bench, chair or a stair. Straightening your body, position your hands on the floor at shoulder width, lower your body until your chest touches the floor at the bottom, and then return to the starting position in a nice fluid motion.
Dips -
This exercise can be done between two sturdy chairs or other surfaces that provide stability. The dip is another great upper body exercise. It’s a compound movement as well and involves working all the muscles that the push up works.
Keep your head up and body as vertical as possible. For the beginning of the movement, start at the top (arms fully extended) and lower yourself until your upper arms are parallel to the seat of the chairs, hold and then push up to the top of the movement until your arms are fully extended again. Keep looking straight ahead and don’t bounce at the bottom of the movement.
Adding Weight
Although the simple weight of your own body is enough resistance to provide an effective workout we need progressive overload (added resistance) to become stronger.
So all we need to do is add some weight wherever we can find some. Because there are no metal plates and fancy machines to use it doesn’t matter because the body doesn’t care where it is as long as it's receiving resistance of some kind.
You can use heavy books clasped in your hands. You can buy some cheap weighted dumbbells or ankle weights. A weighted vest will also allow you to add resistance for both chin-ups and push-ups. Try to buy one that will let you remove and add weight as you see fit. Also a backpack filled with books can be perfect for most of the exercises and is a cheap alternative.
How about a couple of buckets and fill them with a certain level of water? As you get stronger fill them with more water. This is perfect because depending on the exercise, all you need to do is to increase or decrease the amount of water in the buckets for the required amount of resistance.
To wrap things up…
We know that using free weights and machines are the fastest and most efficient way there is to gain lean muscle and strength, but by performing the exercises in this article you’ll find that they will provide you with the same benefits as going to a gymnasium but without the ongoing costs and time constraints.
Gary Matthews has been a gym instructor for over twenty years. He has trained people from athletes to bodybuilders. His professional career began in the Royal Australian Air Force where he was employed as a Fitness Instructor. His duties consisted of training recruits in various disciplines including strength training and conditioning techniques.
This trainer from "down under" believes in using scientific principles for training. Gary says that "as in life, in training: the simplest is always the best." He believes in strength training programs that are short and simple, but with maximum intensity.
Gary is the author of several ebooks, including "Maximum Weight Loss in Ten Weeks" - the complete ebook and time-saving solution for burning away unwanted fat, and "Maximum Weight Gain in Ten Weeks" - easy-to-use and follow techniques that serve as a guide to muscle growth without having to "live in the gym".
Visit Gary’s website at http://www.maximumfitness.com/
|
